Bible - The Universe Next Door : Ch.4-5

What is the one thing that is eternal, according to Naturalists?

Matter

What makes naturalism so persistent?

1. Gives impression of being honest and objective 2. Appears to be coherent and gives an answer for everything

Naturalists make two different categories for history. What are the two types of history?

1. Human history 2. Natural history

During what duration in history did figures swing drastically from Theism to Naturalism?

1600-1750

How does a Naturalist settle disputes between conflicting cultures?

A Naturalist has no way of determining which values among the ones in existence are the basic ones that give meaning

What was the reason that La Mettrie said that the existence of a supreme being was "a theoretical truth with little practical value?

A supreme being only makes the universe it doesn't desire personal relationship

Do Naturalists believe in an open or closed system?

Closed

What critical question comes up regarding ethics and naturalism?

How does ought derive from us

What is the problem of a truly closed universe, in relation to change?

If the present governs the future, then change occurs slowly and logically

Why does nihilism make logic impossible?

If we cannot trust our own thoughts, then logic begins to infinitely regress to the inability to know anything

What is most important to ethics, according to GG Simpson? (what determines good and bad?)

Intuition

What happens to our own responsibility based on the idea from the previous question?

It digresses from us to the events that cause our actions

What is the summary of the first bridge from naturalism to nihilism?

Naturalism does not supply a basis on which a person can act significantly

What is the ironic paradox that comes from naturalism's view of epistemology (knowing)?

Naturalism places humans in a box; but for us to have confidence in knowing we are in a box, we need to either step outside the box or have another being outside the box to tell us

What does behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner say about changing a person?

Since we are reactors, to change a person, one must change their environment

What is Charles Darwin's "horrid doubt"?

Whether the conviction's man mind, which developed from lower animals, are valuable or trustworthy

How does a Naturalist explain any sort of free will or open destiny, when we live in a closed system?

We can do many things that we want to do; we are not constrained to act against our wants

If we are not free to do something beyond what our programmed, complex machine pushes us to do, what would be our accountability level?

We cannot be held responsible

How does nihilism see the end of our free choice at the bottom of page 99?

We only perceive our freedom to choose. In reality we just don't know what previous events caused us to make a certain choice

According to Nihilism, we can either have ____________ or ___________, not both

answers, questions

"Human beings are _________ ____________ without the ability to affect their own destiny or do anything _______________; therefore, human beings as valuable beings are ____________."

conscious machines, significant, dead

Carl Sagan epitomizes Naturalism by saying, " The ___________ is all that ___________ or ever ____________ or ever __________ __________."

cosmos, is, was, will be

Ernest Nagel says, "Human ___________ [is] an ______________ between two ___________________."

destiny, episode, oblivions

"In some ways the theory of _____________ raises as many _____________ as it ___________, for while it offers an ________________ for what has happened over the ____________ of time, it does not explain ________________."

evolution, questions, solves, explanation, eons, why

According to a naturalist, who constructs values?

human beings

"If any given person is the result of ______________ ______________....that person has no way of knowing whether what he or she seems to know is _____________ or _______________."

impersonal forces, illusion, truth

The Humanist Manifesto II describes ethics as this: "We affirm that _________ values derive their ___________ from human _______________. Ethics is ______________ and ________________, needing no ______________ or ________________ sanction. Ethics stems from human ___________ and ______________."

moral, source, experience, autonomous, situational, theological, ideological, need, interest

"Strictly speaking, _______________ is a _______________ of any philosophy or worldview - a ___________ of the possibility of __________, a _______________ that anything is ______________."

nihilism, denial, denial, knowledge, denial, valuable